1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to software applications. In particular, the present invention relates to techniques for dynamically enhancing software applications during execution on a computing device.
2. Background
Software applications, and video games in particular, render graphics information to a display device using a variety of techniques. One well-known technique is to place function calls to a low-level application programming interface (API) such as DirectX® or OpenGL®. In response to receiving such function calls, these APIs issue commands to the graphics hardware of a computer system or, in the alternative, attempt to emulate relevant hardware functionality in software. Similarly, software applications may play audio information by placing function calls to DirectSound®, which is an API within the DirectX® suite of APIs.
It is of interest to various parties that make such applications available to end-users (for example, publishers, retailers and service providers) to augment some of the graphics and audio information rendered by these applications based on a dynamic set of “business rules”. For example, such business rules could be used to display advertising content on a graphics element rendered by a video game or to insert advertising content within an audio stream played by the video game. Ideally, the dynamic nature of the business rules would allow them to be periodically changed. For example, it would be advantageous if the inserted advertising content could be changed on a periodic basis.
One possible method of achieving this is to embed the business rules directly in the original application logic, or “source code”, and then to recompile the application with those business rules. However, this technique of coding and recompiling an application to accommodate the business rules might not be achievable for all software applications. By way of example, the party wishing to insert the business rule might not have access to the source code. As another example, the application that is sought to be enhanced may already have been deployed in the field or purchased by consumers or others.
Another method of achieving the dynamic insertion of graphics content into an application is to integrate special client software into the original application logic during the software development phase of the application. When the application is executed, the special client software serves the application to communicate with a server, which, based upon some predefined business rules, may dynamically insert graphics content into the application in a pre-allocated space that has been identified and registered in advance by the application. However, this method is limiting because it will only work if the application as originally programmed includes the necessary special client software, interfaced during development time, and has identified in advance the areas on which the dynamically-inserted graphics information may appear.
What is desired then is a system, method and computer program product for dynamically enhancing an application, such as a video game, executing on a computing device, without having to change and recompile the original application code. Dynamically enhancing the application should include the ability to dynamically modify graphics and/or audio information generated by the application during execution, to dynamically render additional graphics and/or audio information during execution of the application, or to perform other functions relating to the executing application that are not provided for or invoked by the source code of the application.